The present invention is directed to label holder devices, such as are mounted at the front edge of merchandise display shelving, at the outer ends of merchandise display hooks, etc., in order to display labels containing pricing and other product information.
A known and advantageous form of label holder is comprised of a continuous extrusion of plastic material which is configured to form front and back panels, joined along bottom edge regions of each, typically by means of a forwardly projecting lobe, and forming an upwardly opening pocket for receiving labels. The front panel is formed of clear plastic material while the back panel frequently is formed of a colored, somewhat opaque material.
The present invention is directed to improvements in label holding devices of the general type described to make them more useful for the purposes intended and having a longer useful life. Label holding devices of the type contemplated are formed of a relatively rigid, although at least slightly flexible plastic material, frequently a rigid polyvinyl chloride. For inserting and removing labels, the front panel of the label holder is separated from the back panel, to provide access to the open top of the label holder, for placing and/or removing labels. Repeated accesses to the label holder often result in cracking and/or breakage because of stresses imposed at the flexing area of the label holder. Pursuant to one aspect of the present invention, an improved cross sectional configuration is provided for the label holder, which involves a significant increase in the thickness of the walls of the label holder, in a bottom region thereof, including the entire lobe area and lower portions of the front and back panels immediately above the lobe. The front and back panels, which are principally of uniform thickness in their upper portions, undergo a smooth transition from the relatively uniform thickness of the upper panel portions, to the significantly greater thickness of the bottom lobe area. The arrangement is such that the stresses of repeated accesses to the label holder are distributed over a relatively large region of the cross sectionxe2x80x9d, rather than being concentrated in any particular region.
According to another feature of the invention, the spacing between front and back panels of the label holder in the region of the lobe is at least as great as the thickness of the labels intended to be received in the label holder. Upper portions of the front panel, for example the upper 30% thereof, are gradually curved back toward, and preferably substantially into contact with the back panel. With this arrangement, labels may be easily inserted and removed from the label holder. At the same time, upper portions of the label are reliably gripped by upper portions of the front and back panels.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of preferred embodiment, and to the accompanying drawings.